Avenging The Triplet Alphas
Chapter 19

Loki's POV

It's been a year since Nia was sent packing after I and my brothers rejected her just before the mating ceremony could begin and so much had happened between that incident and now. I had believed that it would be easier to replace a new mate but I couldn't have been more wrong.

We had scoured the country hoping to replace the right woman to carry on the Van Tyson's lineage with but our search was fruitless. Melissa came crawling back after she heard about Nia's rejection and despite our best attempts to make it happen, we wouldn't bring ourselves to speak the bond words and claim her to be our mate.

I hated the Dilemma we were having to deal with, news about our desperation was beginning to circulate, and being in the spotlight for the wrong reasons made me incensed. A solution would have to be found as soon as possible or we would end up losing everything we've ever worked for.

Our pack was one of the most powerful packs in the country, we thrived and excelled beyond our wildest dreams and we were the envy of many others who sought to emulate our feats but the cracks were beginning to show.

My father had fallen sick a month after Arielle left and it wasn't looking like he would recover anytime soon. The doctor had mentioned that he had been steadily poisoned for the past year and his immune system had no fight left. Enraged by the devastating news, I had every one of his servants sentenced to death.

It was then everything began to go south. My father would spend the day worrying about our inability to replace a mate which only placed us under immense pressure to do so. We were going to be the next Alphas after his demise and if we wanted to secure our place on the throne, we would need to have a mate for our dreams to become possible.

***

"It's been what?" My father forced out rather harshly, his voice hoarse. "It's been nearly a year since that mate of yours left and you three have failed to secure another one."

I remained silent standing next to his sick bed with my Elijah and Jonathan on either side of me.

"It isn't as easy as it seems, Father," I replied, hoping to make him see reasons with us. "We've searched extensively, going far and wide within the country but we haven't seen her yet."

"You sound like you've given up, Loki." Xander coughed, propping himself up on the sick bed despite the pain. "I didn't raise my sons to quit when things got a little bit tough." "Quitting isn't an option, Father. We know she's out there, we just need to replace her quicker." I quickly replied.

Xander looked at his other sons, who wore stoic expressions on both their faces. "Elijah, Jonathan, what's your excuse this time around?"

"There's no excuse for our inability to grant you this wish, Father." Elijah started. "We haven't been complacent about this, we're close to getting mated and I promise you that we will." Xander turned his attention toward his last son. "Jonathan..."

"Loki and Elijah are right. We know how much this means to you and what it would do for the legacy we're trying to carry on after you. We will make this happen."

Xander sighed and shut his eyes, lost in his thoughts about what the future would hold for his pack if his sons failed him. He wouldn't let his efforts go up in smoke, he needed an alternative, a second option in the event of a catastrophic disaster waiting to implode in all of their faces. He loved his sons and he had faith in them to overcome their difficulties and grant him his heart wishes but sometimes, love wasn't enough. He had to be rational this time. To think with his head and not his heart.

"I love you, boys, more than you can imagine," Xander began. The room was silent and all eyes were fixed on him. "But the pack has grown bigger than all of us and I will not live to see it crumble under my rule as Alpha of the Silver pack. I won't be able to live with the shame and ridicule that comes with it."

"What do you mean, father?" Loki asked, feeling tensed as he sensed the pressure hovering above them getting heavier than it had been at the start.

"I'm not rooting for you boys to fail but in the face of impending doom, I need to have a second option to protect our legacy," Xander replied.

"We're your sons, father. The heirs to your throne, what other option would you seek when you have not one or two but three of us?" Loki was getting frustrated but he was managing to keep a tight lid on it.

"You and your brothers are my blood and my heirs. Yes, I know that!" Xander's voice rose several octaves. "I formed you all with your mother and I've never denied you anything but desperate times call for desperate measures and I am at the end of the rope here." "I've always nursed this thought at the back of my mind for years now but never did I think it would come to fruition."

"You're speaking in parables, Father," Jonathan said this time. "You have to make us understand what you mean."

"According to ancient tradition and the ways of the Alphas before us, if the heir to the throne dies and there remains no living son to succeed the Alpha after his death, the throne would pass down to the Beta. In unique circumstances like the ones you replace yourselves in, if the heir to the throne isn't able to replace a mate to preserve the lineage of the pack, the Alpha has the power to choose an heir other than his sons to ensure the throne remains intact."

"Father, I-" I was interrupted by my father immediately who raised a finger to silence me.

"I have already picked who would succeed me if you fail to show up with a mate before I pass on. My Beta, Klaus."

***

"Do you think Father was joking with what he said about passing our birthright down to his Beta?" Elijah asked, forcing me to turn towards him.

My thoughts had been clouded by the last conversation he had with his father. "When have you ever seen father be anything other than not serious?"

"We can't let him go through with this outrageous plan of his," Jonathan began. "We've done everything he's ever wanted without hesitation and this is how he wants to pay us?"

"We need to come up with a solution as fast as we can." I began, I understood their hurt but it wasn't going to change anything. Knowing our father, his plan was already set in motion. It had already been before he decided to let us in on it and there was nothing we could do about it.

"We're running out of options already," Jonathan replied. "Heck, what's left for us to do is to make it a case of national emergency asking every eligible female to come over for inspection. We can go through every one of them till we replace our next mate." "There isn't much time left and we all know it."

"What do you suggest? You sound like you have a trick up your sleeve, Jonathan." I asked him.

"I do," Jonathan affirmed. "But I don't know if you both are going to be down with it."

"We don't have the luxury of being selective right now, whatever passes the minimum would be accepted." Elijah was sounding exasperated at this point.

"Jonathan, let's hear it. If it's going to be possible, we'll take it. On no grounds are we going to lose our birthright to some wolf." I assured him.

"First, we make Melissa our mate. I understand we don't have the mate bond but we're out of options here and we need something to work in our favor." Jonathan replied.

"It's not going to work," I began, instantly rejecting the idea. "For what it's worth, you don't tamper with tradition except you want to get f****d up in the worst possible way and I don't think any of us wants that to happen."

"What's the other alternative?" Elijah quickly asked, eager to move on to the next one as soon as possible.

"Arielle," Jonathan said after a glance at both our faces.

I was stunned and rocked to my core. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Elijah's jaw dropping as soon as he registered the name.

We hadn't heard or spoken about her in a year, we decided that she was a blur in our memory, something that never happened and we moved on like she didn't.

Why would he bring up her name now or perhaps, I heard him wrongly?

"What'd you say, Jonathan?" I forced myself to speak, the silence in the room was becoming uncomfortable.

"You heard me, Loki. Arielle is the second alternative, we have to bring her back."